Bahá’í: The religion with only 9 places of worship in the world

Pretty much wherever you are in the world, you’re probably within walking distance of a church, a mosque, a synagogue or a temple of some kind. But I bet you’re not within praying distance of a Bahá’í House of Worship right now – because there are only nine of them in the whole world.

Adherents of the Bahá’í faith are all over the place, but there are only about five to seven million of them. That’d be a lot of people to try to fit in a church, granted – but for a religion, it’s not that many. I mean, there are 2.4 billion Christians, 1.8 billion Muslims and about 14.5 million Jews. It might only be a small religion but it sounds nice. According to Wikipedia, the Bahá’í faith is a religion which teaches “the essential worth of all religions, and the unity and equality of all people.” Lovely!

So let’s take a look at these Bahá’í Houses of Worship. Ten were built but only nine are still standing – one was destroyed in 1963. The ones that are left are pretty good-looking buildings, though. They certainly love a dome!

Dehli, India

Panama City, Panama

Tiapapata, Samoa

Kampala, Uganda

Wilmette, Illinois, US

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About Dom Stapleton

As well as being the world’s northernmost capital city, Reykjavik in Iceland is also an incredible place to visit.

We stayed in a hotel right in the middle of the city and spent most days walking around from there. The main thing we noticed (apart from the cold, of course) was that the people are so friendly. At home, trying to cross the road is a nightmare, but in Reykjavik, the cars are literally queuing up to let you across.

When my partner and I went, in January 2013, the sun only started rising at about 10 am, which was a strange experience. And it got dark at about 4 pm each day!